Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres had a great time poking fun at the foibles of the middle class. Peter Glenville's English translation of their farce "Hotel Paradiso" will open at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 1, at the Center Stage Theatre at Southern Oregon University, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland. The show will run at 8 p.m. March 1-4 and March 8-11, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 10.

In the play, an advertisement for the Hotel Paradiso recommends it "to people who are married. Together or separately." Responding to the ad, a prominent businessman arranges a meeting there with his best friend's wife. Coincidentally, his best friend is staying at the same hotel to inspect its safety. Things are turned topsy-turvy by morning as the leading characters instigate mistaken identities to avoid stumbling upon each other.

"Feydeau once commented that his job as a playwright was to take two characters who should never meet and, as quickly as possible, throw them together in a locked room," says the director, SOU Professor Dennis Smith. "Farce requires absolutely clockwork timing at breakneck speed, and then maybe no one will notice the silliness of the plot." Smith acted in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of "A Flea in Her Ear" by Feydeau, and directed it for the SOU Theatre Arts department in 1991. Smith has directed in the SOU Theatre Arts department since 1985, as well as directing productions for the Rogue Opera, Britt Festivals, Oregon Cabaret Theatre and Lyric Theatre.

Lampooning stereotypical characters, especially fools and buffoons, is a device used for centuries in theatre. In the SOU production, Orion Bradshaw plays Boniface, Amanda Long plays Mme. Boniface, Hardy Pinnell plays Cot (best friend to Boniface), and Luci Bedell plays Mme. Cot.

Tickets are $17 for adults, $14 for seniors, and $5 for students and are available at the door or call 552-6348.